US closely monitoring case of lab worker who ‘possibly’ died of plague in Siberia, says Rubio
Quarantine measures in place in several hospitals in eastern Russia amid uncertainty over death of Darya ShipilovaThe US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has said the US is closely monitoring the case of a Russian laboratory worker who died last week after a reported accident at a plague research institute in Siberia.“We’re watching and monitoring it closely,” Rubio said on Monday before leaving for a trip to Europe. “I don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and a cause just to keep an eye on it.” Continue reading...
Putin's escalating bombing campaign won't break Ukrainians' resolve. History shows that it's doomed to fail | Rajan Menon
As winter approaches and the fifth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion looms, it’s worth remembering that this mode of warfare rarely crushes moraleVladimir Putin’s army hasn’t made much headway in Ukraine this year, and his territorial goals – annexing four Ukrainian provinces – remain elusive, despite more than four and a half years of war. That explains his recent efforts to sap Ukrainians’ will to resist by launching relentless drone and missile strikes against their cities – targeting, among other sites, residential buildings, large open-air markets, shopping malls, the Dobrobut medical centre and the National Academy of Sciences, both in Kyiv. The capital has been hit the hardest, but other cities – Dnipro, Kharkiv, Kherson, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Sumy – haven’t been spared.Air-raid sirens pierce the quiet of night. People scramble to shelters (assuming there are any nearby) or, in Kyiv, race to below-ground subway stations. Even walking along city streets, shopping, or filling up your car at a garage forecourt – which are prime targets – can lead to injury, or even death.Rajan Menon is a professor emeritus of international relations at the City College of New York and a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies Continue reading...